no more silly pandas riding green rockers!

@Luke WUT?

Yo @samthebrand - I'm here!

hi hi!

What's going on @nhinkle ?

So here's the deal - we're officially signed up with Sunday Parkways, and I've got at least 2-3 people who've expressed interest, so I think we can pull it off.

What I need from you/SE is help with getting promotional stuff to give out.

Cool!

I think we can help with that

I requested a quote for those little promotional blinky light things, and I'm thinking we could probably get some leg bands w/ the SE logo or something, too. People love legbands. It sounds like you guys have some water bottles and t-shirts too - any idea how many of those we might be able to hand out?

I can't give you a specific budget to work with, but let's figure out what would be most effective and fun and we'll see what we can do

I'm not sure, but I can find out

I'd also like to get some little handouts made, that have maybe on one side a printed version of the new [about] page, explaining how SE is different and how it works, and then on the other side have some high-quality example questions, specifically things that might be of interest to families since that's a large part of the demographic at these events.

And then perhaps some sort of larger banner or something to hang up on the tent (I have a portable canopy thing), with some variation on the fancy hill + rider theme as seen on the site design, etc.

That's basically my idea thus far. I just need to know how to get everything from you guys, what additional ideas you might have, etc.

Yeah, this all sounds great. Not sure we'll be able to get all that stuff, but certainly some of it.

Yeah, IDK what all is practical, but those were just some of the ideas I had.

Can you send me an email with an itemized list of desired items and number (ie 100 water bottles), in addition to any pricing info for items that we've never manufactured?

I'm not all that familiar with this event and can't say what would be the best way to get our message out, but yeah, I encourage you to think up something that is maybe Portland-specific, or somehow speaks specifically to this crowd

I'll see what I can do. I can recall from previous times at the event that the reflective legbands are really popular. Maybe those rain seat covers you thought of once - it does rain a lot here?

It probably won't be until Monday or Tuesday that I can get that to you though, since I have midterms. but I'll try to do it soon since I know it can take a while to get things manufactured.

Could you check with Jin and see if he can provide files for some of the branding elements for me to whip up some sort of brochure/handout, or alternatively if he would have time to make something like that?

We can definitely get you some assets. Do you really think a brochure is the way to go? Seems kind of effort intensive and maybe not all that effective

Maybe a card or post card or something with a url might be better

Right, not exactly a brochure per say, but I was thinking like a half-sheet card or something like that.

Yeah we can do something like that

You know, something we've never tried...

Get people who stop by to write down questions, maybe on a regular old sheet of paper with a tear-off that has a URL on it, tell them to check the URL in 24 hours, and we can post for them

kinda out there, but might be a good experiment

not sure if it works for this particular event

That might be interesting.

I'm not sure how many questions people would have though off the top of their heads.

I did want to put some example questions with URLs (and QR codes?) that people at the event might be interested in

I like that idea

I wish people actually used qr codes

it's kinda 2011

Haha. True.

maybe we can show questions, and say something like want to know the answer? Check here: s.tk/xxxxx

short and memorable URLs

OTOH we also want to demonstrate that we have good answers... so maybe show the top or accepted answer (or an excerpt), and say "go to s.tk/lkjhfkjhk to see more answers" or something

Yeah. I would try to figure out something that makes sense within the context of where your booth is. What are people doing? Are they just riding by?

Find some way to engage with them in their element

We'll be at an intersection along the route, and I think we're near a choke point (narrow bridge across freeway) which means people will be slowing down/stopping. They'll mostly just be riding by, so we want some way to grab their attention and convince them to stop.

Sounds like a challenge!

Swag helps draw people in, so if things like water bottles are prominently visible that helps get people to stop.

Maybe you don't want them to stop?

What would be the benefit to us if they don't stop? I guess we could try to figure out some way for people to... like, grab something from our hands as they go by. But then we can't explain to them more about why it's awesome, so...

Yeah, that's up to you. And its a challenge!

Not sure if you want to, but you can also consider finding some way of reaching out before the event.

Maybe working with a brand or org that is involved, tying the site in somehow

There's not really much to do before the event. 20,000 people show up on the day-of, so I think that's the best opportunity to get people interested.

But again, that's up to you.

Although I do have one thought...

I could ask Portland Design Works (they make bicycle products, including some of the lights that were among the top pics in my review last year), and are locally based. I could see if they want to "sponsor" our booth or something, and come help out with our intersection. They might be able to donate some lights to give away (maybe raffle off? if you go to the site and ask/answer a question, we'll enter you to win a light?) and we could somehow do something to help them? Not really sure...

...what that would look like but it might be interesting.

Yeah, certainly!

Tabling is hard, and it's really tough to make a difference (and measure it) that way.

But you should really do whatever you think.

And we'd love to help out.

From my experience doing a lot of public fair-type events with college groups I'm involved with, the best way to draw people in is either to a) have free stuff, and/or b) have something that looks really cool and intriguing

Then once you have their attention, you tell them what you actually want them to hear :)

The old bait n switch!

Yeah, that's a good way to go.

So I'll see what I can come up with, and will send you a more detailed email sometime early next week.

But I can tell you from experience, you're not going to notice much of an uptick in site activity or new users after you put in some hard work. You could prove me wrong!

In the meantime could you find out about availability of existing bottles, shirts, stickers, etc. and see if Jin can provide any (digital) stuff?

Yes Nate I'll do that

Awesome. Even if we don't get a huge increase in visitors, if we have some fun, help out with a cool community event, and get some people interested who might come back later when they do have a question, I think it'll be worthwhile .

Certainly! I'll get you an email in the next couple days.

In other news, by popular demand I'm working on a front lights review post similar to my rear lights one I did last year. I've gotten about a dozen different companies to send stuff for me to review, and I've started working on that. Probably won't be done until May or June, but I think it'll be pretty cool!

Oh hey that's great! That post was a huge hit. Really a canonical study you put together there.

It's been surprisingly popular - we're approaching 100,000 views now! Hopefully the next one will be similarly well-received.

wow, that's huge

OK I've got to go to class now. I'll keep you posted on what I come up with. Thanks for all the help!

No prob. Some great ideas here. Looking forward to to figuring out something that works.

See ya!